Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and nine other people were killed when the military plane they were travelling on crashed, the country’s president Lazarus Chakwera said.
The aircraft carrying Mr Chilima, who was seen as a potential candidate in next year’s presidential election, went missing yesterday.
“I’m deeply saddened, I’m sorry to inform you all that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy. The search and rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill. They have found it completely destroyed with no survivors”, Mr Chakwera said in an address to the nation.
The aircraft carrying the 51-year-old, left the capital Lilongwe at 9.17am Malawi time (8.17am Irish time) yesterday however was unable to land at Mzuzu airport as scheduled due to poor visibility.
It was ordered to return to Lilongwe but went off the radar and aviation authorities could not make contact with the plane.
Mr Chakwera said all passengers on board were killed on impact and that the military was bringing their remains back to the capital.
“Despite the track record of the aircraft and the experience of the crew, something terrible went wrong with that aircraft on its flight back to Lilongwe, sending it crashing down and leaving us all devastated”, the president confirmed.
The 51-year-old was arrested in 2022 over graft allegations. However, a court dropped the charges against him last month after the director of public prosecutions filed a notice for the case to be discontinued. Mr Chilima denied wrongdoing.
